Beyond
by Amarin Rose
Summary: Pairing: Tim–Kon Summary: Not quite one year later, while Tim tries unsuccessfully to clone Kon back to life, there's an unexpected someone else who's going to give him a little successful help. No matter what the cost...
1. Guardian Angel

**Guardian Angel**

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_This is really more of a prequel to Chapter 2, than Chapter 2 is a sequel to it. It would be best to read Chapter 2 first, and then come back and read this, as it would make more sense that way. _

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Secret's smoky form whispers around and through the 'clouds' of limbo as she observes their shared charge. Greta Hayes was brought back to life, yet she had been a Warder for so long that a part of Secret would forever remain caught between worlds, watching and guarding the mortals the Powers protected. "He misses Kon so much." She frowns, and Hal cannot help but feel her sorrow, it is so obvious.

"Yes," Hal agrees softly as he watches Robin working diligently in the hidden cave beneath Titans Tower. "True love is ever so much more encompassing that most people realize." And ever so much more damaging if it was ended too soon. If they knew the possible anguish it would bring, he thinks quite a few mortals would quit seeking it.

Or maybe he just hopes. Having to watch Timothy these past few months since Kon-El's death… As the Spectre, Hal technically has no heart, yet he still feels the ache as it slowly weeps for Tim Drake.

"But true love never dies," Secret says with the naiveté that she has never lost, not even in death thrice over.

"The truest love doesn't, for souls never die," Hal agrees with equanimity. Then he sighs and hangs his head, gaze focused through the fog of the worlds between on Robin. Soulmates are so very rare; that those should be separated even before they had revealed their feelings to each other is nothing but outstandingly unjust in his mind. "But the flesh is ever so much more weak and ephemeral."

Frowning, Secret looks down at Tim once more. Long moments pass as she observes the advent of yet another 'failure' in Tim's quest, and tears prickle at her smoky eyes at the loss of not-quite-life – and yet another of Tim's hopes. Finally, after a long moment, she wipes away the tears and turns hopeful eyes on Hal. "But, if souls never die… Couldn't we give Kon's back?" she asks.

Hal Jordan had seen so much in time as a Green Lantern, and even more as the Spectre. Even Timothy Drake's quest to re-clone Kon-El didn't come as much of a surprise. It's been a seeming eternity since he has been truly shocked.

But he is now. Very much so.

He is silent for a moment, mouth open to speak, but unable to think of words to say. Finally, he utters, "It…it is possible, yes, but…the Powers That Be would never allow it." He knows; once he caught sight of Tim's plan, he'd immediately gone to ask the Powers if Kon-El were to be reborn, as his predecessor and others before him had been.

The Powers…had said no. Even if the so-called Heavenly Court is letting bureaucracy get in the way of helping people, one thing Hal has learned in his time as the Spectre is that no one goes against the Powers without paying a price.

Secret looks even more determined at his answer, for all that she is barely a wisp of coffee-colored fog. "We don't have to tell them," she says mutinously, not even whispering.

"They would still find out," Hal tells her. "And the Powers already barely tolerate you here, Secret; I do not wish to think of what punishment they might exact on you." Secret is the lone bright spot in his solitary half-life; the fact that she keeps him from pestering the Powers on a daily basis about the cosmic injustices they have wrought is likely the only reason they have tolerated her presence thus far. That and the fact that they think she is powerless.

The mulish set to her mouth let him know that she is not going to abandon this idea. Even in unlife she hasn't abandoned Timothy; Hal shouldn't expect her to abandon Kon-El, either.

Though he had – selfishly, he knows – hoped she would stay with him for a little while longer…

Hal sighs, and admits, "Even if you were willing to risk it, I know not how to find Kon-El's soul." That it is still in limbo, he does not doubt; the more people tying a person to the mortal plane, the longer they linger after death, before finally moving on. It hasn't even been a year since Kon-El's death…and soulmate connections are always a stronger bond than any other.

"I can find him," Secret states, and Hal allows himself a moment of pure shock before asking, "How?"

Her eyes grow sad, and even before she opens her mouth to speak, Hal knows he isn't going to like what she says. "You know I have the power."

Hal's eyes fall closed, as if to block out the reality of her statement. He knows full and well that she isn't powerless. He also knows that the remnants of her power as a Warder are the only thing still tying her to this, or any, plane of relative existence. If she was to use her scant remaining power in this endeavor…

…Secret would cease to exist.

Hal…doesn't know what he would do without her. But more than that, he cannot ask her to remain tied to this plane of nonexistence for any longer than she can bear. This half-life is his own self-imposed punishment for his mortal mistakes. Secret…is innocent, and deserves it not.

"Why would you do such a thing, little one?" Hal has to ask, knowing even as he does what Secret's reason most likely is.

Timothy Drake. Greta Hayes has had the chance to move on from her first childhood crush, but Secret is still feeling the full effects of that puppy love. Young and untried, yet her affections are just as true as…

…as Timothy's for Kon-El.

"I'll always love him," Secret says, and Hal knows it to be true. Timothy and Kon's love for each other is the true, right love that so many searched for but never found. It happens only once in a very long while. But Secret, for all that her love for Timothy is no longer strictly romantic, loves him with an equal fierceness as the dearly departed Kon-El.

"But now it's time to let him go." She shudders slightly, and a smoky tear runs down her cheek. "He needs Kon. Or else he'll…" Her eyes shut and she shook her head as if to banish the thought. When her eyes opened once more, they held determination, and no trace of tears. "I won't let that happen. I…I can bring Kon back. I **will** bring Kon back," she stated fiercely.

"Why?" Hal asks, even though he thinks he knows.

"Tim will be happy again." Her smile is bittersweet, for Hal knows that she has never been truly happy helping him to guide souls across the barrier between life and death. How sadly ironic that a spirit filled with such life should forever be among death. "That's all that matters."

Hal thinks of objecting…and doesn't. He knows that Secret will do this, with…or without…his help. He knows that this soul search is just as much to free her of the burden of half-life, as it is to free Timothy from his burden of grief.

The hole in his heart that Secret's 'death' will leave him with…is his burden alone to bear.


	2. A Heart's Helping Hand

**A Heart's Helping Hand**

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_AU for sometime during OYL. Completely ignores current Titans canon._

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"It won't work, you know."

The sepulchral tones echoing through the hidden cave come as a shock, but no surprise. He knew he'd eventually be found out; he just didn't know by whom.

Tim turns around, coming face to chest with Hal Jordan. Now is the time for shock. Forgoing questioning the other's presence, he asks, "Why?" He has a mental list with at least one reason for each failed attempt, for why that particular sequence didn't work. Eventually he'll come upon the right sequence to reclone Superboy.

He knows that's not what the Spectre means.

The cowled figure gestures towards the green glass tube, a frown curling his lips sadly downwards. "This is just the body; the soul is the **true** person."

And Tim knows this, has known this all along…but deep inside him there was a tiny spark of hope that nothing's been able to extinguish. It flickered and almost died out when he received the news about Kon's…death…but he's had this contingency plan in place for awhile, and falling back on his Bat-training has allowed him to soldier on.

With Superman out of commission, the world needs a Superboy. Or so he tells himself, when really, it is **he** who needs **Kon**.

The Spectre has appointed himself the harbinger of death and other such non-earthly concerns for the superhero sector, however. If he's here, saying this to him now…

Tim's breath catches in his throat as he feels the rest of his heart break.

…Kon's never coming back. He can't **bring** him back.

No matter what he does.

Confronted with irrevocable evidence to the futileness of his mission, Tim crumples to the cold stone floor of the cave, his new cape almost cloaking him from view, but unable to hide his very palpable hurt, or the tears sliding one by one down his distraught face.

He doesn't know how long he cries; long enough for all the tears he's held in since forever to fall, it feels like. Great, hiccupping sobs wrack his too-thin body, and Tim has to tear the gloves from his hands to wipe the salty traces from his face. All the hurt that he's kept bottled up inside – because Robin has to be able to work while enduring **any** pain – has finally been set free. And it's too much. He isn't strong enough, not without help. Not without…Kon.

"All hope is not lost," the Spectre says, and the timber of his voice pulls Tim from his grief. He opens red-rimmed eyes to find the former Green Lantern eyeing an empty petri dish on the lab table with a sort of sorrowful wonder. Hal places a hand on the dish with the current crop of cells, and a soft, smoky silver light encompasses it. He then turns to Tim, and the last Robin feels as though he's being weighed and measured by what Power runs the universe itself.

At least an angelic messenger of the Powers that Be.

"Kon-El's body is dead," Hal Jordan states calmly, though not unkindly. Tim can't help but feel his broken heart lurch in his chest. "But the soul…never dies."

A niggling sense of anticipation starts building in Tim's gut. He can barely manage to keep up his unconscious need to blink. The Spectre has to be here for a reason beyond trying to talk sense into him…right? He'd originally dismissed the idea as fanciful, though he'd hung all his hopes on it, but could Raven really…

"You, Timothy Drake, have been chosen to receive the greatest gift one being can give another." Hal's eyes glisten with tears, unexplainable sadness etched across his every feature as he reaches into his robes and withdraws a bright, shining light.

Barely able to breathe for fear of this dream ending, Tim accepts the radiant globe with utmost reverence, staring at it in wonder through tear-laden lashes.

Long after the Spectre has ghosted away, Tim stares at the glowing orb held in his cupped hands, mesmerized by the flashing images of Kon's life within.

The sandy beaches of Hawaii at sunset.

The Rayban sunglasses Kon used to wear everyday, rain or shine.

The leather straps of his second uniform.

An image of the Kent farm from the air.

A _Wendy: The Werewolf Stalker_ marathon that he missed out on two days worth of sleep to watch.

A race with Bart, that he loses, though not by much.

Kissing Cassie, and how her lips taste like cinnamon.

The feel of his tactile TK wrapped around Tim as he rescues him from falling.

A group hug, when all the former members of Young Justice gather at Anita's house for her parents' joint birthday party.

Talking with him, late into the night, about his problems. Feeling better just because Robin had listened.

The lingering image of a worn black leather jacket with an S shield thrown over a coffin, and the feeling of tears in his throat, spurs Tim to his feet. He carefully places this most precious piece of Kon inside the indestructible case with his Superboy uniform. Souls are eternal, but this is Kon's, and he's not taking any chances. With one final long, lingering look, Tim turns on his heel and heads to the computer banks, and towards try #66. The number is traditionally the beginning of a bad omen, but Tim has a feeling that his Hell on Earth is about to end, and soon.

He has the most important component. Now all he needs to do is create a body to house the heart.

His heart.

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THE END


End file.
